Electronic data storage needs are growing, thereby calling upon further investments in electronic storages and hence increased costs. One approach to cutting data storage costs is to compress data prior to storage so that more data can be stored in less storage space. For example, if 100 MB of uncompressed data is compressed to 10 MB of compressed data, the amount of data storage needed is significantly reduced, thereby reducing costs. To read the compressed data, the data must first be decompressed.
Some kinds of data are highly structured, such as databases. To read a particular record from within a database that is stored in compressed form, the system may decompress the entire database or an entire block of the database to access the particular record in decompressed form.